


A Guide To Asking Your Best Friend On A Date

by pensversusswords



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, they're so oblivious and smitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5745952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pensversusswords/pseuds/pensversusswords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, more like “what <i>not</i> to do while trying to ask your best friend on a date.” There just had to be a more effective way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Guide To Asking Your Best Friend On A Date

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at writing these two! I'm not sure how I feel about how I've written them, but bear with me - this is just kinda me testing the waters with this pairing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

Poe had never had so much trouble asking someone out in his entire life.

It wasn’t like he did it a whole lot, to be fair. He’d had his fair share of giddy, hand-holding, kissing behind the bleachers affairs, yes, but it wasn’t often that he found himself having to formally ask the object of his affections to go on a date with him. His relationships often developed naturally; starting with rosy cheeked flirting, leading to walking each other to class, hanging out at each other’s houses after school. Most of these little affairs were short lived, to be sure, but they were _easy_ and fun.

Trying to ask Finn out was decidedly not easy in the slightest.

It was different, Poe supposed, because they were best friends, and had been since the first moment they’d seen each other on the first day of high school. Friends at first sight, they often said. They’d sat next to each other in English class and from that moment forward, they were practically inseparable. Poe had instantly been drawn in by his bright smile, his enthusiasm for everything, the way he knew how to make Poe laugh until his sides hurt.

It took Poe nearly two years of friendship for him to finally realize why his heart stuttered when Finn smiled at him like he was the best thing he’d seen that day, or why his cheeks always flushed when Finn casually threw an arm over his shoulder.

After the realization hit him right in the chest like a freight train, he sat there on his bed in complete shock for the longest time, before reaching for his phone and calling Rey, his hands numb and feeling like they were moving on their own.

“Did you know that I have a crush on Finn?” Poe said the instant she picked up.

“Are you asking me, or telling me?” Rey asked. She sounded equal parts exasperated and amused.

Poe had just opened his mouth to answer that question when she cut him off.

“No wait,” she said, “Don’t answer that. Either way, the answer is yes. You are completely smitten with him and it is painful to watch.”

Poe groaned, flopping back on to his bed and threw an arm over his face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Rey snorted. “I was hoping you would figure it out yourself. I wasn’t going to interfere with whatever gooey, gazing into each other’s eyes thing you had going on.”

“We do not-“ Poe stopped mid sentence, frowning. Did they?

“You do,” Rey countered, her voice firm. “I’ve had to witness it for two years, Poe.”

Poe groaned again.

“Yup,” Rey replied cheerfully.

“Well, what do I do now?”

“The only thing you can do. Ask him out, you dummy.”

Poe knew she was right, but asking out his best friend was proving to be more than a little bit difficult.

This was _Finn_ they were talking about, and any semblance of suaveness he’d thought he had in the past was rendered useless. He was completely and utterly out of his element.

First of all, any deliberate flirting he tried with Finn rolled off of him like water off of a duck’s back. It became obvious very quickly that Finn was completely oblivious Finn’s attempts at flirting. According to Rey, this was because he had been accidentally flirting with Finn this whole time. So, Finn didn’t recognize it as flirting because that’s how Poe always acted around him.

After a few weeks of continuously complimenting him, deliberately touching his arm far more than necessary, laughing especially loud at all of his jokes, Poe realized that he was going to have to take a different approach. Namely, he was going to just have to bite the bullet and ask the guy out.

This realization didn’t make anything easier.

His first attempt to ask him out was nothing short of a disaster. It was ill timed – in the middle of chemistry class – and involved Poe being so flustered that he ruined their assignment in the process. Poe had thought that maybe doing it casually while they were in a familiar environment would make it easier. His logic was that if it was a normal environment they were always in, it wouldn’t feel so much like Poe was dropping a bomb on him.

Poe had made a massive miscalculation. While he was trying to think of exactly how to phrase what he wanted to say to Finn, he realized that he was pouring the wrong substance into a beaker and it ended up overflowing all over the place.

Chemical reactions were a bitch.

To Poe’s dismay, they had to stay in at lunch to redo it because of Poe’s careless mistake.

“I’m sorry about this,” Poe said regretfully as Finn was putting on his lab coat that afternoon. Poe felt awful about it; Finn was stuck in the lab while he could be out with their friends if Poe hadn’t messed up.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Finn said, smiling at him reassuringly. He reached over and clapped a hand on Poe’s shoulder, giving it a faint squeeze. “It’s alright. I’m just hanging out with my best bro like I would be anyways.”

Poe felt a grin tug at the corner of his mouth. “Still,” he persisted.

“Still nothing,” Finn argued. Then, his face broke out in an amused, delighted grin and oh _god_ how had Poe never realized how much he loved that smile? Finn brightened up the room, he made Poe feel like he was floating, like his heart was going to burst out of his chest…

“Also,” Finn was saying now. “The look on your face when the beaker exploded was priceless.”

Poe felt his cheeks flush faintly. “It didn’t explode, Finn.”

Finn shrugged. “Po-ta-to po-tat-oh.”

After that they fell into an easy, amiable state of productivity as they finished up their project much more efficiently than they had earlier when Poe was attempting to ask him out in the middle of mixing chemical ingredients.

Looking back, he realized that, yeah. Not such a great idea.

When Poe told her, Rey laughed at him for a good five minutes before calming and lending him some comfort for his failed attempt.

His next attempt was to just ask Finn to hang out with him, as usual, but in a very date-like environment. He figured that if he did so, Finn would have to realize that it was a date before agreeing to it.

After much deliberation, Poe found himself faux-casually asking Finn out for milkshakes while they waited for the bus after school one day.

“Milkshakes?” Finn repeated after him, quirking a brow, looking a little bit confused

“Yeah,” Poe answered, shuffling his feet a bit. It was cold out – he hoped that Finn would just mistake it for him trying to keep warm instead of seeing it as Poe’s nervousness. “I dunno, I thought it might be fun.”

There was a long pause after that, in which Poe thought his heart might actually explode out of his chest.

Finally, _finally_ , Finn answered.

“Sure,” he said. Poe felt his entire body slacken with relief. “Can’t remember the last time I had a milkshake, and that is a problem I was unaware of and we need to immediately fix.”

Practically giddy with relief, Poe tried his hardest to keep his grin to something a little more casual than he was feeling. “Tomorrow during lunch? I’ll have the car; I can pick you up?”

“Yes,” Finn said emphatically. “Beats taking the bus by a long shot.”

Of course, because apparently asking Finn to be his boyfriend was the hardest thing he had ever done, the milkshake date ended up in a disaster as well.

This time it wasn’t Poe’s fault, at least. It was a new waitress who brought them their milkshakes to their booth, who ended up spilling them all over herself and Finn.

A heap of napkins and a billion teary apologies later, Finn was sitting in the booth in just a thin tee shirt, as his sweater was soaked through. He was now trying to sop up the mess on the table while Poe assured the waitress that it was alright, no real harm done.

“It’s only my second shift,” she was saying frantically, her eyes suspiciously red rimmed. She was mopping up the floor very forcefully, her hair coming out of her bun and falling in loose strands around her flushed face. She looked positively distressed.

“Hey,” Poe said, reaching out and stilling the mop. “Kate?” He read her name off of her name tag, and she looked directly at him with those red eyes. “It’s alright, I promise. Stuff like this happens.”

“I dumped a milkshake all over your friend,” she said miserably. She turned back to Finn. “I really, _really_ am sorry.”

Finn flashed her his most charming, genuine smile. “Hey, don’t sweat it. This guy over here made something explode on me in chemistry class last week and I still like him.”

Shocked, her eyes turned back to him.

“He’s exaggerating,” Poe said quickly. “It barely spilled. But anyways, Finn’s right. It’s totally okay. In fact, this is something we’ll all probably end up laughing about.”

“I doubt it,” she mumbled, looking both skeptical and still miserable.

“No it’s true,” Poe said, keeping his voice light and friendly. “’Hey guys, have I ever told you about that time I spilled a chocolate milkshake all over this random guy at work during my second shift?’ It’ll be the ultimate party story.”

Kate sniffed, smiling a little bit as she wiped her sleeve over her face. “Okay,” she relented after a moment. “It’s a little bit funny, I guess.”

“There you go,” Poe grinned, patting her shoulder amiably. She smiled a bit wider then, and Poe considered that to be a success.

However, the date was still ruined, even though they ended up leaving with a handful of coupons and a piece of pie Kate had tucked into a takeaway box for them.

When they got back to school and were pulling into the parking lot, Poe noticed Finn rubbing his arms, tucking his hands against his ribs to keep warm.

“Wait,” Poe said before Finn could get out of the car. Finn paused with his hand on the door, turning back to Poe with a questioning expression.

Poe reached into the back seat to retrieve his jacket that he remembered tossing back there that morning.

“Here,” he said, handing it over to Finn. “You’re cold,” he explained when Finn looked at him skeptically.

Finn quirked a brow, giving him an expression that Poe couldn’t quite read. It was a lot like confusion, but softer in a way. Poe found himself squirming under his scrutiny.

“You’re lending me your favourite jacket?” Finn asked.

Poe shrugged. “Yeah, of course. Put it on, we’re running late.”

Finn obliged, swinging it over his shoulder and shoving his arms into the sleeves.

“How do I look?” Finn asked, puffing his chest out and preening dramatically. “Do I look like the great Poe Dameron?”

Poe laughed, the sound bright and delighted in the small space of the car. “It suits you,” he said honestly.

He left out the part where it was making his heart flutter and his chest to fill with a kind of satisfaction at the sight of Finn wearing his jacket. Finn was wearing _his favourite jacket_. He wanted Finn to wear it all the time.

He was in so deep.

Finn grinned and grabbed his backpack. “Good. Let’s go, I’d rather avoid having to stay stuck in a classroom again at lunch, thank you very much.”

Poe’s third attempt proved that third time’s the charm, which was a good thing because he’d decided to shell out for a bouquet of roses for Finn.

The plan was to show up at Finn’s door with the flowers and say “I like you, will you be my boyfriend”. Simple, easy, hard to mess up. He was just going to show up and do it. Straight to the point.

He drove over there with clammy hands and his heart slamming against his ribcage. Before going inside, he took a few moments to take a few deep breaths, telling himself to stay calm, it would be alright. He was nervous, but he was excited too, giddy with it. This time it had to go well. It _had_ to.

What he hadn’t anticipated, was that the weather had chosen that day to drop in temperature, effectively causing random icy spots to appear everywhere. He also hadn’t anticipated that there would be an ice patch right in front of Finn’s door.

Adding these variables together ended in the very unfortunate result of Poe finding his feet slipping out from under him within seconds of him ringing the doorbell.

Finn opened the door just in time to see gravity take Poe as an unwilling victim, yanking him flat onto his back into the middle of Finn’s walkway, sending the bouquet of roses Poe was holding flying up in the air to scatter across the ground in disarray.

“ _Poe_ ,” Poe heard Finn yelp as he struck the ground. Finn’s voice was a little fuzzy, Poe noticed.

A bright spot of pain bloomed at the back of his head where he hit the ground, resonating through him unpleasantly. The pain was sharp and insistent, throbbing angrily in his skull. His breath left him in a heavy gust

Poe felt disoriented as he lay there, the air knocked out of his lungs, his head spinning even though he was laying on the ground.

The ground was cold, he noticed. Freezing, actually.

His head really hurt.

 “Poe,” Finn said again, this time his familiar face hovering over Poe’s, his expressive brown eyes a frantic and concerned. “Damn it, man, how the hell did that even happen? Are you okay?”

Poe sucked a deep breath into his lungs, fought the urge to groan in pain, and flashed Finn what he hoped was a charming smile. “Peachy,” he declared. Was his voice too loud? He couldn’t tell.

Wincing, Poe struggled into a seated position, Finn’s hand on his arm keeping him steady.

“You better slow down there,” Finn said, planting his hands on Poe’s shoulders. He was on his knees on the ground next to Poe, watching him with a concerned expression. “Give yourself a minute.”

“The ground is cold,” Poe pointed out.

“Yeah which means I assume you don’t want to fall on it again, so get up slowly. You knocked your head pretty hard.”  

“I did,” Poe agreed. He paused for a beat. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

Finn blinked. “What?”

“Will you,” Poe said, slowly and deliberately, “be my boyfriend.”

Finn stared at him for a long moment. Poe stared back, not backing down. He’d lost any semblance of dignity at this point; he was sitting on the cold ground and his roses were scattered in every direction. There was no point in holding back anymore. He came here to ask Finn out and he wasn’t going to leave this mission unfinished this time. Shitty circumstances be damned.

“I think you might have hit your head harder than I thought,” Finn said carefully.

“No.” Poe shook his head, then winced at the rush of pain and vertigo it brought. Bad idea. “That’s what I came here to do. That’s what the roses were for.”

Finn looked around at the ground, his eyes widening a bit as if he was noticing their existence for the first time.

“I mean,” Poe continued, “I know it might seem weird that I’m asking out my best friend, I know, we’re buddies but I realized that I like you. I like you a lot. I have for a long time and-“

The rest of whatever Poe was going to say was cut off by Finn reaching out to cup his cheeks in the palms of his hands, and leaning in to kiss Poe silent.

Poe could’ve sworn his heart stopped for a moment.

It took a moment for his brain to come online; he registered the firmness of Finn’s hands on his face, the warmth emanating from him, the softness of his lips on his own. His breath faltered, catching in his throat. Then, his brain and body finally caught up with what was happening and he was reaching up and curling his hands around Finn’s wrists, clinging to him, leaning into the kiss. It was sweet and warm and perfect and Poe never wanted it to stop.

It had to, of course, but when it did, Finn didn’t move away. Instead he hovered there for a long moment, eyes dazed and gentle as he searched Poe’s face.

“That’s a yes, by the way,” Finn clarified.

Poe was sure his smile was blinding. “Yes?”

“Yes, you idiot.” Finn grinned back at him, and his smile was just as brilliant as Poe’s felt. He laughed; a breathless, giddy sound. “I had no idea you liked me back, I thought-“

Still smiling, Poe leaned forward, suddenly overcome with the need to taste that smile, to feel the form of it under his own mouth. He kissed Finn this time, which was met with enthusiasm. Poe felt himself slipping away into the sensation of Finn’s mouth on his own, into the feeling of Finn’s hands on him.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought to himself that _this_ , this moment right here, was worth all of the failed attempts at romance.

There was probably a way he could’ve done it that didn’t include him ending up with a headache for the rest of that day but, well.

It would do.

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on [tumblr](http://pensversusswords.tumblr.com/) !


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